The problem for many users is that they run the risk of exceeding their internet plan's limit.
It occurs to me that a great synergy that the Australian Government could take advantage of would be to make the streaming of ABC content unmetered over the National Broadband Network.
I think that so called "catchup TV" is actually the future of TV. Podcasts are the future of a great deal of radio. Tablet based news aggregators are the future of newspapers (it feels archaic even using that term already).
We'll have broadcast TV and radio transmitters for a while yet but in the end it's all data. Making the NBN a free distribution channel for ABC content seems like a logical idea. Anyone in favour?
Count me in on that one.
ReplyDeleteI'd include SBS in it too. Though I'd expect a lot of bleating about "unfair competition" from the private media companies.
The setup I've got here at home is stupendously confusing. Two internet connections - IInet which has a "freezone", providing unmetered Iview, and Optus which doesn't. Add to that I've got a "smart TV" (more like "stupid TV") which claims to show Iview but doesn't - it logs on the TV manufacturer's server which mirrors only a subset of Iview - and it's metered, not through the freezone, even if I'm on the IInet connection. So I've bought a WDTV box that shows the regular Iview through the IInet freezone. Meaning
I've got a 1 in 4 chance of getting the right setup for freezone. Please, pretty please, just run it through the NBN and have it always unmetered!
And another whinge... how about a proper HD feed through Iview? The present signal (through either connection) is rubbish quality - I reckon it's worse than an SD broadcast signal.
cheers
Peter